Event Details
- From: 08/11/2024
- To: 16/11/2024
- Starting at: 07:45 PM
- Ending at: 07:45 PM
Matinee: 09/11/2024- Starting at: 02:30 PM
- Ending at: 02:30 PM
Address
- Main Auditorium
- North Street, Bromley, BR1 1SB
Content Warning
Occasional strong language
The Southbury Child
By Stephen Beresford
Directed by Mike Darbon
An amateur production by arrangement with Nick Hern Books
David Highland is sharp-witted, urbane and frequently drunk. He is also a vicar who keeps a grip on his parish in coastal Devon through a combination of disordered charm and high-handed determination.
But when his faith forces him to take a hard line with a bereaved parishioner who wants Disney balloons at a family funeral, David finds himself not only dangerously isolated from local opinion but also his own family and facing a future that threatens to extinguish not only his position in the town, but everything he stands for.
The Southbury Child is darkly comic, exploring not only family and community but the savage divisions and rituals within contemporary society. Produced by the Chichester Festival Theatre and the Bridge Theatre in London, it was postponed in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and finally performed in the summer of 2022, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Alex Jennings as David Highland.
Actor turned writer, Stephen Beresford is best known for his debut play at the National Theatre in 2012, The Last of the Haussmans. He was also screenwriter of the award-winning film, Pride. Born in London but raised in Dartmouth, where both The Southbury Child and The Last of the Haussmans are set, The Southbury Child is the second play in Stephen Beresford’s intended “Devon Trilogy”.